Christianity is just about being real. We all have feelings, thoughts, wants, needs, lusts, desires, joys, sadness, likes, dislikes, opinions and ideas. God is familiar with all of them. I have always wanted to start a men's group in my home with the name "Beer, Barbecue and Bible Study". I'm not sure the church community is ready for it just yet.

Sunday, May 29, 2005

Simple Obedience

"And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and soul... to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, to hold fast to Him...No man shall be able to stand against you; the Lord your God will put the dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land where you tread, just as He has said to you." Duet 11:13, 22b,25

Recipe for success: follow the above, repent, repeat. Sounds easy, huh? I can easily say that I have not been obedient most of my life, even most of my Christian life. I screw up, I walk the other way, I go back to old habits. I repent, I draw near to God, and then I repeat the cycle.

God's made it simple, the recipe seems simple, why the hell is this so freakin' hard then? I have choices to make every day. That chapter in Deuteronomy continues with the consequences of obedience or disobedience. Again, it's simple: if you obey, you're blessed, if you do not obey, you're cursed. Why is it so easy to choose the latter? We already know what to do. We already understand the consequences. It's simple...yet there's such a battle for our soul, that temptations are made so easily available that disobedience looks good, seems good and feels good.

Making a choice of disobedience most often seems like it would be the path of less resistance, and sometimes it is that way. At least in the beginning it is that way. It soon becomes apparent though, that our choice of disobedience begins to weave a complicated web that entraps us and gets us stuck in places and with things we do not want, or are hard to get rid of. Habits.... feelings... thoughts.... patterns... addictions... pick your favorite. The bottom line is, God makes it simple. We screw it up.

So in this walk with God, I have to deny what has no profit to my soul. I must turn my back on things that only provide temporary and empty promise for the life God intended me to have: one of great promise, blessings, and authority. It just seems so simple.